Murph1958@aol.com

My vision for Earth is a place where each individual's inner peace is
reflected to the outer reality, where a child's belief in magic is no longer
hidden from adults, where beauty is perceived as an intrinsic part of every
being of all "tribes". I envision a new type of classroom where we
experiment with harmonization instead of separateness, where we create what
we truly want in our heart of hearts - not becomming facinated with creating
what we conceptualize as negative, a place where we don't need to be
caretakers any more.

Bruce Schuman <origin@RAIN.ORG>, Santa Barbara, California

> If you could have your way,
> what would the world community be like in fifty years, and what could
> your religious tradition contribute to the process of making your
> vision come true?

In a nutshell: 50 years from now, I would like to see the presence on the
world scene of a very strong "spiritual science" that was publicly
represented to the world by extremely credible and genuine people, who
worked to present an image of human potential that was capable of
inspiring any culture on the planet, and which was entirely
"trans-sectarian". This work would have emerged through a combination of
scientific and spiritual methods, democracy and the process of dialogue,
and advanced techniques in information engineering, mathematics and
semantics, and which had interreconnected all the major traditions of the
world in ways which articulated their common ground, and pointed towards a
clearly defined "global ethic" which all these cultures could generally
accept. This all-inclusive network-based science would act as a spiritual
engine for the refinement of society, including everybody and everything,
on an entirely free-will basis -- and "the path" taught by this syncretic
(in the best sense of the word) discipline would produce happy and
brilliant people, whose greatest pleasure in life it was to bring freedom
to this planet and all its people. And of course, this "system" would be
utterly nurturing to diversity, would impose nothing, and would flow like
lightning, moving with the grace of Krishna...

JD Flora, as published by Joachim Steingrubner <jhs@newciv.org>

From 'Logs of JD Flora':
[begin quote]
Constantin, a politically thinking man talking to JD Flora,
his prisoner of war who was a recognized philosopher at that
time (330 AD):

"I rule the Earth.", he said, "My word is Law.

If I set free all slaves,
if I teach Grecian to the Turks,
if I split all my countries,
if priests would rule instead of me,
if there would be no coins,
if I would melt all swords,
if man would live forever,
and we would be in peace:

Tell me, wise man:

What would we do?
Where would we go?

Tell me! Speak!"

His eyes were fixed on the camp fire, but his spirit was open.
I remained silent for a long time and he didn't mind.

"You know how trees bear fruits and nuts.
And how a fruit, deep in the ground may grow to be a tree itself
one day.", I answered.

"Of course, a peasant is aware of that."

"Then you know, too, of course, that when the earth is dry,
the seed will die, and when the river is too high, the seed
will drown. And when there is rock instead of earth there
is no room to grow, and when it's sand the roots will find
no grip."

"Yes, sure."

"As we are living in the dark, striving for insight like
a shoot for the light of the sun, this is what I would like
to live to see:

Refreshed by knowledge,
warmed by love,
not washed away by war,
all men of clear mind
will break through to the light
like a shoot out of the ground.

What greater feat could you accomplish, ruler of Earth, than
to lead the way to a future like this?"

Del Wilson <WilsonDL@aol.com>, Dallas, Texas

Del's vision for the World Knowledge Network:

I developed this vision by closing my eyes, breathing deeply for 3 or 4
breaths to center myself and started to list the things most important to me.
I saw my family, friends, co-workers and network buddies all there looking at
me for something I did not understand. I wanted to build something for them
that would have a lasting positive effect on them and the world. The common
idea that ran between them all was the relationships. Me to them, them to
each other and to those that they knew in their life circles.

I started to paint a picture of each person as a single point of light and
then I knew what I wanted with the Wknet and the future. I saw an opportunity
to create a space for them to develop their relationships. However, I knew
that the most important part of the relationships was the ability for the
points of light to share and learn together. The knowledge flow was like a
laser beam from one to the other and each one to each other.

That was the start of the Wknet I wanted. I then painted the picture even
larger and saw it from horizon to horizon. It was deep and lasted into the
darkness of a vast dimension. Then the points of light began connecting and
new points appeared ever so slowly at first. as new points emerged, they
connected to the other points and this action began to happen so rapidly as
to seem to be an atomic explosion. Everyone was connected to everyone in a
knowledge flow and the entire spectrum of light was beaming though the
painting until it was totally white light.

I now see that to have knowledge flow in that manner, there would need to be
more than a connection. There would have to be some focusing mechanism to
create the beams of light so accurate that they could be used when needed to
find the knowledge that was available. As the light beams are bi-directional,
knowledge flows both ways and more knowledge was flowing than I could see
from the painting I created.

I think there must be a way for the individual to become a point of knowledge
and to share and learn at the same time. This is the interface that is
missing. How to get knowledge to flow instead of merely making a connection.
That was the piece of the puzzle I was missing. The World Knowledge Network
is the beginning of a long journey. The ability for us to connect to those
who have or need knowledge is the next step.

When this vision was stated to others, there seemed to be some urge for
people to ask, "What will come from all this knowledge sharing?". I think
that if we can get people linked to other people using some intelligent
interfaces on the existing and future networks, then whatever comes from that
will be very important to the world. I don't know what it will be, nor do I
want to ponder the issue. Let it happen.

This vision is different from other networks and communities in that there is
something missing from them that should be pursued here. True, knowledge is
being shared between individuals today. I find it difficult and strange to
link with someone on a given topic unless there is an accidental discovery of
each other. I know there are many others out there that can contribute to the
world knowledge who don't know that other means exist to do so. We need to
have a way for people to seek out and find knowledge no matter where it is.

There is a lot of discussions today in many disciplines regarding knowledge
repositories. It is my belief that there is no tangible method for us to put
our knowledge into a database. We can put information there, retrieve it in
intelligent ways, but to assimilate that information into knowledge requires
the computer on our shoulders. Knowledge resides in the people. Wisdom is the
effective use of that knowledge. Global wisdom is achievable only when we can
collaborate with knowledge workers. If I can't store knowledge in a database,
then it seems to me that we need to connect our knowledge stores to the
network in some way. (I don't mean to have wires running from my head
either.) Its the interface that is important.

I have some very high level ideas on how the interface will effect the
focusing. It will take time to define it. It is much more that connections.
It is almost so simple that it will be missed if we do not look closely.
However, it is very difficult to see.

Paul Hoffman <paulhoffman@sfo.com>, Berkeley, California

Navigating the information age; search engines; intelligent agents;
knowbots; filtering systems; newsreaders; connection makers; making the
match; transformation of holons through access to powerfully appropriate
solutions; don't reinvent the wheel; the lessons of life that are
learned one place spread out/over to other applicable situations;
discovered generalized principles brought to bear on the specialized
local circumstance; lower the threshold for finding the info; increase
reference librarians, information brokers, a public information utility...

We have the wisdom. How do we spread it around? A few years back the
head of the ALA (American Library Association) said so many research
projects were being repeated because it took longer to find the data
from others work than it took to do the experiments again. What a
waste, take this inefficiency out of the system, increase productivity
of us all. Write the programs to (a) assess/define/model/translate into
code in what's your current situation/dilemma and (b) to search the
dataverse for the options discovered by other peoples in other
times/cultures that are the most likely to fit your situation. "Wise
Counsel" online. Electronic mentoring. A place to begin your search, or
to go to when you are stuck. A national/global information utility,
open to the public, --as essential and appropriate to us in the
Information Age as the creation of electric utilities in the Industrial
Age. A service which provides Answers to Questions ("AtQ"); each
citizen has the right to so much AtQ per month/week. Publicly funded,
upleveling all of us, ready access to the combined wisdom of humanity.

We have the potential to do this. Now to get about sorting through
the mass of overload to get just that which makes a significant
difference in our lives. I suggest this is doable. As a
counselor/consultant, I do this all the time: assessing the client's
situation, going into my personal databases of stored knowledge,
retrieving that which is most likely to be fit with their particular
need, seeing if it feels like a match to them, if so recommending further, if
not then retracing my steps, asking them for more particulars, suggesting
other avenues. If you don't know and you want to know, you can always
find out or at least move a lot further in the direction of clarity.

We used to think doctor's diagnoses were sacrosanct; but for years now
there have been expert systems that model if the patient comes in with
these symptoms, these are the likely courses of treatment. I suggest we
spread this out to the life situations of more and more people. And
beyond individuals to communities, organizations, corporations, nations
--what is a wise step for someone is *our* situation, whoever "we" are...

Limits: Of course there will always be those people who are truly on
the cutting edge of innovation, creativity, inspiration, for whom this
service can only provide a base camp from which to launch of onto their
journeys of discovery. And this public info utility is no substitute
for thinking on your own, developing your own mind [Big Brother tells
you what to think and slants all the "answers" to your questions to the
state's advantage, keeping you passive, entertained, isolated,
powerless...] But just as few of us find it useful to do long division
by hand anymore, I suggest we fund/create the mandate for this service
which collapses the distance, or lowers the threshold barrier, between
what are our current life problems (relationship, job, housing,...) and
what is the best thinking of others who have worked through these.

I think we all would gain, that it's worth the investment. And any
community, or group of people, who do this for each other would rapidly
increase the intelligence and quality of life for all it's members. I
suggest we do this now, if only informally: ask each other what is it
that we really want? What would really make a difference in our lives
if we but had an answer to? And then we keep our antennae out for each
other to find what each other lacks. I know this is already done alot
on the Internet and is generating a lot of positive gain. Let's
consciously replicate the meme further.

Flemming Funch <ffunch@newciv.org>, Los Angeles, California

The word "work" will lose its current meaning. Our lives will be our work.
We will continuously do what we most feel we need to do.

The means for our physical survival and well-being will be provided more
and more easily, with less and less physical effort required. Combined with
a change in our ways of relating economically with each other, that will
provide us more freedom to choose.

We will collectively discover that we are most effective and valuable when
we do what we truly enjoy and when we work on improving what we find in
front of us. We will work out of our own inspiration and we are motivated
by the fruits of our work.

We will not be looking for employers who will give us work. We create work.
Our work creates value around us, for ourselves and for those we relate
with.

We will no longer distinguish between play and work. Our lives will consist
of playfully adding value to our lives and to the planet as a whole.